Rakeem Christmas and Michael Gbinije are in Estonia this week playing in a Four Nations Cup tournament held in Tallinn, Estonia.

The Syracuse University players participated in a two-day training camp at Fordham University over the weekend. They departed for Estonia on Sunday with the East Coast All-Stars, a team coached by Guy Rancourt of D-III Lycoming College.

The tournament includes teams from Belarus, Estonia and the Slovak Republic. The American team played its first game -- albeit a scrimmage -- Tuesday in Estonia. The All-Stars lost to Rapla BBC 85-77.

Christmas and Gbinije each contributed four points and four rebounds in the loss. Louisville's Russ Smith led the team in scoring with 18 points. Providence's Kadeem Batts scored 12. The American team shot just 3-for-25 from 3-point range, compared to 42 percent by Rapla. (No individual shooting stats were available.)

The East Coast All-Stars will practice for the final time today in Saku Arena before starting play in the Four Nations Cup on Thursday. Christmas told me last month that he was excited to play in the overseas tournament. He told SLAM Online much of the same thing:

"Being invited to this is an honor to be able to represent our country over there," Christmas said. "To go over there and play international ball, it's like a whole different game. I'm just going over there to have fun, work on my game and take everything I've been working on this summer and do it in a game setting."

Map of Estonia

Christmas is fairly active on Twitter and Instagram. He gave me permission to use any and all of his social media interaction to chronicle what the team encounters over there in Estonia. (I've included a map. Consider this your summer geography lesson.)

Christmas said he uses social media to have a little fun and make people laugh.

Gbinije has forsaken social media, so Christmas will have to provide all the visuals. Gbinije will be a sophomore at SU this season, after sitting out the year because of NCAA transfer rules. He transferred to the Orange from Duke last summer.

Rancourt said by email Tuesday that Christmas is playing center for his team; Gbinije is slotted into a small forward spot. Those positions will be flexible as the tournament progresses, Rancourt said.

Rakeem Christmas and Michael Gbinije pose with kids from Estonia after their East Coast All Star team played an exhibition game on Tuesday.

SU coach Jim Boeheim told me Gbinije would play mostly shooting guard this season. His work at point guard during SU practices last season allows for the possibility of spelling Tyler Ennis, the only true lead guard on the Orange roster.

"The nice thing with Michael is he gives us some flexibility," Boeheim said. "We think he can play the two or the three and we played him in practice at the one just to get him used to that. You wouldn't want him to play 20 minutes at point guard, but he could play there eight or 10 minutes very easily."